Mobile hot spots are popular items these days, but there's something to be said for the plug-and-play simplicity of a USB aircard. Pop it into your laptop and presto, you've got broadband. And because it draws on your laptop's beefy battery, it's one less thing to keep charged (and one less charger to bring along).

There's also a microSD slot, which might come in handy for, say, transferring photos from a camera. And T-Mobile supplies cobalt blue and dark violet covers in case you get tired of basic black.

That's about it on the feature front. Because this is a no-contract aircard, you're not on the hook for monthly service; you can purchase blocks of airtime as follows:

300MB 1-week pass for $15

1.5GB 1-month pass for $25

3.5GB 1-month pass for $35

5GB 1-month pass for $50

Needless to say, if you only occasionally need broadband to go, this is an affordable way to get it. And if you want to share that broadband with other devices, MiFi-style, you can turn your Windows 7 laptop into a hot spot with a utility like Virtual WiFi Router.

One word of caution: be sure to check T-Mobile's coverage map before you buy this. The last thing you want is to discover that you barely have any service where you work and live. But if you're covered, it's hard to beat $20 out the door for mobile broadband.

Bonus deal No. 2: Want to try Windows 8 without the usual hassles of partitioning or reformatting? Run it virtually. Parallels is offering its Parallels Workstation 6 for $9.99, a savings of $70. This virtualization software lets you run multiple operating systems on your Windows or Linux PC, without rebooting, and without disturbing your current OS setup. Neat stuff.

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